Lakeland U15AA Panthers win historic Provincial gold

Lakeland U15AA Panthers with the Provincial banner. 

What a season for the Lakeland U15AA Panthers.

After winning the NAHL league with a pair of wins of Southside Athletic Club, they avenged their previous losses to the Calgary Royals White with a tightly contested 2-1 victory on Sunday afternoon.

“It’s our most complete 60 minutes we’ve played. The heart and commitment to our game was unreal. The feeling for these kids is incredible…they worked their tails off. It’s unreal,” said coach Chad Mercier after the game.

“It was everybody. When we’re playing, it’s hard to pick one or two guys because of the team effort and the commitment to the team that everybody has. When we compete and play at our level, we’re hard to beat. Today we were hard at beat.”

After losing to the Royals at the Alberta Winter Games for the gold medal, and earlier in the tournament in the round-robin, the Panthers exercised the demons to do something last done by the 2017-18 Lakeland Panthers — hoist the Provincial banner.

Lakeland cruised to a 8-3 win over SSAC Innovation Physio, and collected a 5-4 win over CAC Think Green Alberta, and a 2-2 tie against the Okotoks Oilers to punch their ticket to the gold medal game.

The Panthers never trailed.

They got the quick jump thanks to goals from Cruz deMoissac and Deklyn Robinson to come out of the first period ahead 2-0.

Calgary got a 2nd period tally from Tayton Belecki but that would be as close as they would get. A wild scramble near the Panthers goal was snuffed out by Will Lafrance, who made 32 saves to ensure the gold.

Roster:

# Name Position Height Weight Shoots Hometown
Lakeland Panthers BLAKE PAWLYK (AP/GUEST) Player
Lakeland Panthers BRADY LAFRANCE (AP/GUEST) Player
Lakeland Panthers CARSON RITCHIE (AP/GUEST) Player
Lakeland Panthers CORBIN WELLS (AP/GUEST) Defense
Lakeland Panthers DEXTYN VASSEUR (AP/GUEST) Player
Lakeland Panthers FARIS ABOUGOUCHE (AP/GUEST) Goaltender
Lakeland Panthers HUDSON MACHNEY (AP/GUEST) Player
Lakeland Panthers JAYDEN SOOLEY (AP/GUEST) Player
Lakeland Panthers JOEL TOEWS (AP/GUEST) Player
Lakeland Panthers JOHNATHAN TOEWS (AP/GUEST) Player
Lakeland Panthers MAX FERENCE (AP/GUEST) Player
Lakeland Panthers MILLER CORRIVEAU (AP/GUEST) Player
Lakeland Panthers REID MAHE (AP/GUEST) Player
Lakeland Panthers TATE WILSON (AP/GUEST) Goaltender
Lakeland Panthers WYATT NEAHR (AP/GUEST) Player
Lakeland Panthers 1 EVAN FEDOR Goaltender
Lakeland Panthers 4 LINKEN MAHE Defense
Lakeland Panthers 5 KALE LAVOIE Forward
Lakeland Panthers 6 SLADE LEBLANC Forward
Lakeland Panthers 7 MATTHIEU MENARD Defense
Lakeland Panthers 8 MASON MERCIER Defense
Lakeland Panthers 9 KYLE WELSH Forward
Lakeland Panthers 10 CALEB OXFORD Defense
Lakeland Panthers 11 CRUZ DEMOISSAC Forward
Lakeland Panthers 12 WYATT COOK Forward
Lakeland Panthers 13 HUNTER RUCK Forward
Lakeland Panthers 14 OLIVER MACHNEY Defense
Lakeland Panthers 15 NICKALAUS MURPHY Forward
Lakeland Panthers 16 JESSE WHALEY Defense
Lakeland Panthers 17 ILIJAH WATTERS Forward
Lakeland Panthers 18 DEKLYN ROBINSON Forward
Lakeland Panthers 19 BRADY FOX Forward
Lakeland Panthers 20 HUNTER PRYBYSH Defense
Lakeland Panthers 33 WILL LAFRANCE Goaltender

Panthers Defencemen Caleb Oxford

Panthers forward Cruz deMoissac